


Let Her Sleep

by intern_at_german_chapterhouse



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-07
Updated: 2020-01-21
Packaged: 2020-04-12 10:37:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19130314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/intern_at_german_chapterhouse/pseuds/intern_at_german_chapterhouse
Summary: After Tony's death, Pepper wants to talk to her daughter but Peter tells her not to.Just a short, angsty fic I wrote in like half an hour at three am so....





	1. Chapter 1

Carefully closing the door, Pepper turns around to face Peter. It's dark outside and they haven't turned on the lights yet so she can only barely make out his face. But he can see hers clearly and he sees the streaks of tears on her cheeks, the puffy red of her eyes and the way her lower lip quivers. He can see the dried blood over her cheek bone and on her left arm and how tired she is. That tiredness in her eyes he knows all too well, he feels it too.

She takes a deep breath, turns on the light and walks over to the kitchen and Peter follows. He knows that May is on her way and he can't wait to see her, but there was no way he was going to let Pepper fly home on her own. Mr. Rogers is taking care of Mr. Stark's body and everything else that has to be dealt with but Pepper wanted to go be with her daughter. So Peter just hung on to her suit while she flew back home and now here they are.

“Here,” Pepper says, “let me make you a cup of tea and then I'll go talk to Morgan.” Peter doesn't answer, he's too tired to say anything. So he just sits down at the table until Pepper puts the mug down in front of him. But when she starts walking toward the staircase he speaks up.

“Let her sleep.”  
“What?” Pepper turns back to him and Peter shrugs.  
“Let her sleep. Don't tell her yet.” Slowly, Pepper comes back to the table and sits down across from him.  
“Why not?”  
“This is gonna be the last time she really sleeps in weeks. Let her sleep for as long as possible and then tell her.” There are tears welling up in Peter's eyes and he doesn't even try to keep them from rolling down his cheeks. “Once you tell her, she won't be able to fall asleep again. She's gonna stay up for as long as she can and then when she finally can't keep her eyes open anymore she'll have nightmares. And when she wakes up she'll want to call for her dad. And for a second, just a second, she'll forget. And then it'll come back. She'll remember that her dad won't come and she'll feel alone. She won't want to because she actually knows that she isn't but that's what she'll feel. And she'll feel that way for weeks.”  
"When your parents died, they... They told you right away, didn't they?"  
"Yes. The didn't know better. But I do. I know."  
The air is filled with silence as the tears stream down Peter's face and Pepper blinks one away.  
“So... Just let her sleep. As long as she can.”

With that, Peter gets up and walks to the door. He heard a car outside and hopes that it's May. Because he needs her. He feels the exact same way he just said Morgan would feel, lost and alone and vulnerable. And he needs May because the last time he felt this way she was there. She held him and told him that he wasn't alone and he believed her but that didn't change the way he felt. Not for weeks.  
But right now the only thing he wants is for her to hug him and reassure him again. For her to hold him tight and tell him everything will be okay. And perhaps tomorrow he'll be able to tell Pepper the same thing.

 


	2. Let Them both Sleep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The next morning, Pepper talks to Morgan. And Peter can't help but listen.

Peter didn't mean to listen in on Pepper's conversation with Morgan. He just couldn't help it.

The walls might be thick enough to shield conversations from human ears, but not from his enhanced ones.

Still, he only picks up snippets of what they say, but that doesn't mean it hurts any less.

The way Morgan's voice sounds when she asks where her dad is. She expects the answer to be “Still in bed,” or “Downstairs, preparing breakfast.”

She doesn't expect the real answer.

But then she asks again, and she speaks so loud that Peter can hear her clearly. “Where's dad?”

Her voice breaks and with it Peter's heart.

It breaks along the lines left over from the first time it was shattered. When he lost his parents. And then when his uncle died. Just the day before he could feel the scars getting weaker, how it was about to give in. And now, hearing Morgan cry into Pepper's shoulder, the stitches May's love put on the break lines tear and the pieces of his heart fall to the ground and shatter even further.

Tears are streaming down his cheeks again but he stays quiet. He doesn't want to wake May, who had been so happy when she saw him yesterday.

He had almost gotten angry at her for being so cheerful until he remembered that they both had gone through completely different things. She hadn't lost anyone, only gotten him back. So he hugged her and let her hold him until he had cried so much he was sure there wasn't a single drop of water left in his body.

But now he cried and couldn't seem to stop. He heard Morgan sob and Pepper trying to calm her down, but the little girl couldn't stop either.

 

Peter is still silently crying when he hears someone knock on the door downstairs, too faint to wake May, but loud enough for Pepper to hear too. Peter can hear her getting up and quietly hurries to the door to stop her from going downstairs. Morgan is still crying, still needs her mom, whoever is at the door is far less important than the little girl.

But Pepper is already halfway down the stairs when Peter gets to the top stair so instead, he carefully goes into Morgan's room. He's only seen pictures of her, downstairs, they are everywhere. In the kitchen, the living room, along the staircase. Picture of their little family, the girl always in the center.

She looks up when he gets into the room, her eyes red, her face tear-streaked and her lower lip quivers- she looks a lot like her mother the night before. But she also looks like  _ him _ .

And Peter has to fight very hard not to cry again. Instead, he smiles at Morgan and she looks at him and just says “Peter?”

And before he can answer, she extends her arms in his direction, as if she is asking to be picked up. Hesitantly, Peter steps closer to the bed until she pats on the mattress beside her, so he sits down. Within seconds, she slings her arms around his neck and draws him in for a hug. And she doesn't let go.

 

When Pepper gets back upstairs after talking to Steve for a few moments, thanking him for taking care of her husband's body and inviting him to stay, she finds two kids in her daughter's bed.

Morgan is still hugging Peter, even in her sleep holding him close. And the boy has his nose buried in the younger child's hair.

Carefully, Pepper closed the door. “Let her sleep,” she whispered to herself. “Let them both sleep.”


End file.
